SF Science

JC06

Can anyone tell me what second year science is like? I'll be doing biology 201 and 202 and geology. Is there alot more work to do than there was in first year? Also, is there anything that I could do now so that I'm ready? I don't mean studying maybe just something I could read that would help. After only scraping a third in first year I'm really motivated to do better in second year Thanks!

emollett

There are more labs i think, bio2 has 3 hours a week and bio 1 has 3 or 4 depending on which ones you are doing, the micro ones are 4 hours a week. Bio 2 is fairly easy to pass, although not many do very well as it takes a lot of reading. Bio 1 is where a fair few people fail, but as long as you keep up with it throughout the year you should be fine, just don't leave it to the last minute. For all of them make sure you do the labs and hand everything in. I've heard this is particularly important in geology but i can't be sure. From what i've heard geology is a fairly easy subject, just do the work.
If you want to read up on some of the subjects the two books i remember having to read a lot of are Skelton's Evolution, and Stryer's Biochemistry.

Pet

The jump from JF to SF science is massive. Much moreso than people expect. Biology 1 in particular. There's an extremely high failure rate in Bio 1 - like about 30%. You really need to be doing the recommended reading from the first week for that - not much, but you really need to keep up. In JF, cramming is very doable, but it just won't work in SF.

Personally, I thought 2nd year was harder than third year, because there's so much material and it's all new in SF, whereas in third year you're building on what you learned the year before. But others may not find this to be the case.

JC06

Thanks for the replies! Are the labs more interesting than first year? I really will try to keep up with the reading this year, first year was a bit of a mess! Does anyone know what geology is like? Is it just more of the same rocks being passed around the room? Are there more lab reports in biology?

Pet

I really will try to keep up with the reading this year

I think this is the catchphrase of Trinity students [and probably university students in general]. You say it, OP, but it probably won't happen.

Is there [sic] more lab reports in biology?

Biology 202: yes, but in the first term, you don't really have "labs" as such, you have self-directed field trips, in a sense. You get a lab book, and are told to go off to the botanic gardens [College's, in Dartry, note the lack of capitalisation], the Natural History Museum [or the Zoology museum, if the former is still shut] and fill them in as appropriate. In the third term the end of the second term, you'll have free passes to go to Dublin Zoo to do some animal behaviour fieldwork. That's as far as take-home lab reports in Biology 202 go; the rest are done whilst in the lab.

Biology 201: in the first term, there are biochemistry lab reports, which are rather involved, but they're worth a good amount of marks, so your work will not be in vain. In the second term, there are no lab reports, and only the odd sheet to fill in during the lab session [which tend to be very simple].

As for Geology, I have no idea, having taken Geography instead.

And yes, the labs tend to be more interesting, but they're also harder.

AlanSparrowhawk

It's been ages since I did SF Science but what I'd say is

Try and think about which is your favourite subject. Have a look at the moderatorship options (biochemistry, zoology, geology, neuroscience etc.) and try and decide which one you'd like to do. You don't actually have to decide for a good few months but if you have an inkling you might decide to read one of the recommended books. Like let's say you really like developmental biology and are interested in neuroscience or zoology you might go read Gilbert. You don't have to read the whole thing or understand it all but you'll get a good idea for how it all fits together. You might read Stryer if biochemistry is your pet subject.

Also, on the other hand you might say "I really hated the biochemistry we did in first year, I hope I don't have to do too much this year". Well you will, and maybe this is also a good reason to go read one of these books now.

CJTobin

+1 to pretty much everything said so far OP, but I'd also like to recommend Lippincott's Biochemistry. You won't find everything in it, but I found it to be much more useful than the lecturer let on. You'll find it in counter reserve in the Hamilton library, if money's tight, but I'd seriously recommend getting Lippincott instead of Stryer.

If I think of any other recommendations, I'll post them here.

JC06

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll definately try to have a look at those books, I kinda was hoping that there wouldn't be much more biochem

CJTobin

Don't worry too much about the biochemistry, JC. There is a lot of it, pretty much an entire paper, but it's actually fairly manageable if you go through the past papers and practice a few of the more common questions.

IMHO, it's the microbiology/genetics you'd want to watch out for. Paper two in Bio I (or Bio 201, as it's called now) is entirely devoted to these, and the questions aren't exactly predictable. Attend the lectures, pay attention, and keep your various handouts/notes in order and you shouldn't be in too much trouble.

For most people, paper one is probably their strongest paper out of the two, but as they say, different strokes for different folks!

skregs

hardest exams of the 4 years. enjoy

piby

The jump from JF to SF science is massive. Much moreso than people expect. Biology 1 in particular. There's an extremely high failure rate in Bio 1 - like about 30%. You really need to be doing the recommended reading from the first week for that - not much, but you really need to keep up. In JF, cramming is very doable, but it just won't work in SF.

Personally, I thought 2nd year was harder than third year, because there's so much material and it's all new in SF, whereas in third year you're building on what you learned the year before. But others may not find this to be the case.

TBH I'd disagree with this. Personally I found that JF was only a slight step from the LC in most subjects just with slightly more detail. The same is true with SF only perhaps the jump in detail is a bit larger. Certainly I'd agree that the biochem and Bio 1 in general are a bit of a nightmare but as long as you do the work you'll be ok. IMHO the biggest step up is that between freshman and sophister years ie 2nd to 3rd year. For me that was the biggest jump in standards I've ever encountered at any level of education!

hardest exams of the 4 years. enjoy

Again I disagree. Not only is the required level of knowledge, obviously, less than in JS but at least if you mess up in SF you have the chance of supplementals. Mess the annual exams up in JS or SS, where there are no repeats and hence IMO ten times more pressure, and you're basically ****ed!

JC06

Thanks everyone, looks like I'll be spending more time in the library this year! Does anyone know by when you would have to pick what you want to specialize in? What kind of results would you have to be getting in second year to get into certain courses? Is it really very competitive?

Napoli

You don't pick what you want to specialize in until the end of the year. You will have done modules in all of the different moderatorships by this stage (eg. genetics, zoology etc) and so you should have a fair idea of what you enjoy and what your strong points are. There are info talks given to all SF students so you will be able to make a well-informed choice.

The smartest students get first choice of the moderatorships. Courses like physiology, neuroscience and genetics are the most popular. Different courses also have different number of places available. If you don't do so well in your SF exams you may be stuck with the not-so-popular courses like microbiology or the dreaded botany, or any other course that isn't full up yet. In a way, SF is kind of like the CAO points race all over again.

Bajingo

This might sound stupid but when you(OP) say you're doing BY201 and BY202 do you mean you're doing all ten biology modules or just two of the ten?

Zoodlebop

Pet wrote: »

Is there [sic] more lab reports in biology?

Why did you make the verb singular? Is this an obscure grammatical rule that I'm unaware of?

/off-topic

@OP: To answer your question about Geology, it is pretty much the same as first year. I found it very dull, but it's a pretty easy course. A first or good 2.1 is certainly in order if you put any work at all in.

seacláid-te

Whats neuroscience like as as degree, It's appealing to me at the moment!

JC06

Bajingo wrote: »

This might sound stupid but when you(OP) say you're doing BY201 and BY202 do you mean you're doing all ten biology modules or just two of the ten?

Sorry, that was stupid of me! No, I'm doing eight of the ten modules

Anyone know if this week long geology field trip is worth going on? I'm excited to go back to college now...

Bajingo

JC06 wrote: »

Sorry, that was stupid of me! No, I'm doing eight of the ten modules

Anyone know if this week long geology field trip is worth going on? I'm excited to go back to college now...

Cool just making sure we're on the same page..I was like what the hell were those bio modules I picked then :P !